The present disclosure relates to roadway snow and ice control and more particularly to a system that employs two spinner assemblies and a dual auger assembly that feeds both spinner assemblies or just one of the spinner assemblies with salt or a mixture of salt and brine.
A variety of commercial proposals involve spreading granular salt, brine, or brined salt on roadways for snow and ice control. Such proposals include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. Re 33,835, 5,318,226, 5,988,535, 6,382,535 6,446,879, and 7,108,196. A related proposal for making brine is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,153.
Despite such advances in this art, inconsistence in salt spreader output from the dump truck, auger bypass, and inaccurate reporting of salt usage still exist. Considering that in a moderately severe winter, salt usage by the State of Ohio, for example, could exceed $100,000,000 annually, there is a strong drive to improve such salt roadway distribution.
One method to decrease salt usage would be to enable salt spreader trucks to place light loads (say, 100 to 200 pounds/mile). Right now minimum accurate salt usage ranges from about 400 pounds/mile on up to 1,000 pounds/mile or more.
Of course, additional improvements in the salt spreading operation could save additional governmental funds, as well as more reliably spread salt and brined salt on roadways for ice and snow control.
It is to such improvements that the present disclosure is addressed.